By Adam Kramer
Community Board 13’s monthly meeting Monday night drew a packed house to protest the building of a group home in Laurelton for girls from troubled families, but to the surprise of many in attendance, the board removed the item from its agenda.
Safe Space, the organization building the home, decided against continuing with the project due to a community outcry against the building.
“The group home was on the agenda but came off a week before after the board’s housing and group home committee met with Safe Space,” said Richard Hellenbrecht, president of CB 13. “Safe Space backed out of the project because they decided it was not the right situation.”
Community Board 13 covers a large area stretching from Glen Oaks to Springfield Gardens and from Queens Village to Rochdale Village.
The house, at 224-05 138th Ave., which has already been rented by Safe Space, would have served as a diagnostic center for 10 girls ages 12 to 17. They would have lived under strict supervision for about 90 days, then been evaluated by staff to determine an appropriate placement.
Safe Space ran into problems with the community board because it began renovating a house as a group home without informing the board in writing.
Hellenbrecht said the organization decided it did not want to antagonize the community and was afraid the home’s inhabitants might be stigmatized by local residents.
“The organization was extremely professional,” he said. “They told us that they had learned a lot from the proceeding and would go to the community before siting a space for a home.”
Many residents have acknowledged the need for group homes, but decried the organization for failing to inform the community, which they contend is already saturated with group homes.
“We heard the community’s reservations that it felt that they had too many homes of this type in their community,” said Carine Barometre, director of youth and family services at Safe Space. “And we decided to look to build the home in another community.”
She said she did not know where the organization would try to build but it was in the process of examining the next step.
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
